{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T16:05:16Z","timestamp":1782921916909,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,10,18]],"date-time":"2016-10-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1476748800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UL1GM118973"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UL1GM118973"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Gout is caused by the overproduction of uric acid and the inefficient metabolism of dietary purines in humans. Current treatments of gout, which include anti-inflammatory drugs, cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, and systemic glucocorticoids, have harmful side-effects. Our research laboratory has recently introduced an innovative approach for the decrystallization of biological and chemical crystals using the Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Decrystallization (MAMAD) technique. In the MAMAD technique, microwave energy is used to heat and activate gold nanoparticles that behave as \u201cnano-bullets\u201d to rapidly disrupt the crystal structure of biological crystals placed on planar surfaces. In this study, crystals of various sizes and compositions were studied as models for tophaceous gout at different stages (i.e., uric acid as small crystals (~10\u2013100 \u03bcm) and l-alanine as medium (~300 \u03bcm) and large crystals (~4400 \u03bcm). Our results showed that the use of the MAMAD technique resulted in the reduction of the size and number of uric acid and l-alanine crystals up to &gt;40% when exposed to intermittent microwave heating (up to 20 W power at 8 GHz) in the presence of 20 nm gold nanoparticles up to 120 s. This study demonstrates that the MAMAD technique can be potentially used as an alternative therapeutic method for the treatment of gout by effective decrystallization of large crystals, similar in size to those that often occur in gout.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules21101388","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,10,18]],"date-time":"2016-10-18T10:46:25Z","timestamp":1476787585000},"page":"1388","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Decrystallization of Crystals Using Gold \u201cNano-Bullets\u201d and the Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Decrystallization Technique"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Nishone","family":"Thompson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zainab","family":"Boone-Kukoyi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Raquel","family":"Shortt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carisse","family":"Lansiquot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bridgit","family":"Kioko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Enock","family":"Bonyi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Salih","family":"Toker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Birol","family":"Ozturk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kadir","family":"Aslan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,10,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3136","DOI":"10.1002\/art.30520","article-title":"Prevalence of gout and hyperuricemia in the US general population: The national health and nutrition examination survey 2007\u20132008","volume":"63","author":"Zhu","year":"2011","journal-title":"Arthritis Rheum."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1137","DOI":"10.12669\/pjms.295.4029","article-title":"Relationship of serum uric acid level and angiographic severity of coronary artery disease in male patients with acute coronary syndrome","volume":"29","author":"Qureshi","year":"2013","journal-title":"Pak. 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